This application relates to digital image files.
When a user captures an image using a digital camera, for example, this single exposure can result in a pair of image files associated with the captured image. One of the pair is an image file in the raw format, which has not been processed or compressed and thus has all of the original image information available. The second file of the pair is a processed and/or compressed image file that typically has lost some of the pixel information compared to the raw image file. One example of the corresponding pair of image files is the RAW+JPEG pair, where JPEG is a common file format technology used by digital cameras. The RAW image file represents an unprocessed image file that retains all of the originally obtained pixel data. The JPEG image file is a compressed image file that, as a result of the compression, has lost some of the original pixel data of the captured image. The JPEG image file necessarily loses at least some pixel information because standard JPEG compression is lossy.
The JPEG image file may be visibly different from the RAW image file because the JPEG image file has gone through camera processing—for example, white balance processing, data compression and the like. For example, the JPEG image file may look more saturated than the RAW image file. The JPEG image file typically is a result of processing the RAW image by decreasing the dynamic range and performing compression. The resulting JPEG image file is small in size and easy to work with.
The RAW+JPEG pair format can allow a user to obtain two image files from a single exposure (e.g. capturing an image) on a camera device. After shooting a RAW image file on a camera device, a corresponding JPEG image file can be generated at the same time. The RAW+JPEG pair is not obtained from two different exposures in that the shutter of the camera is not fired twice, but rather the image is captured once and saved in the two different formats.